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Northern Counties Housing Association Ltd

The use of the laptop allocated to this project has formed a valuable adjunct to a project which has been expanded over the past year, and, with additional funding as a Millennium Volunteers Project will be expended over the next three years.

Sheffield Foyer is located on an inner city estate undergoing extensive re-development and consequent population change. Young people, some of whom live in Sheffield Foyer, and an extensive residual population of the elderly, dominate the population profile. Inevitably this has led to mutual complaint between these age groups. In an attempt to overcome this Sheffield Foyer developed an integral project based on sharing IT skills which many of the young people possess and a significant number of the elderly residents wish to acquire. The nub of the project is that young people act as mentors, sharing these skills with older residents, by delivering keyboard skills, knowledge about the internet, gameplay and the use of CD ROM’s.

The outcomes of this include: breaking down inter-generation barriers often characterised by fear, mistrust, and ignorance: broadening the horizons of people who’s financial, and often physical, limitations tend to make them insular; informally providing a skill base upon which the recipients can build; and giving the young participant a sense of self worth and confidence.

The project operates by brining the elderly into Sheffield Foyer where they are able to use the two dedicated IT training rooms with daytime/evening support from the residents. Also by transporting the mobile workstations to other locations on the estate which the elderly use, and by tuition delivered by groups of two or three elderly people at home using the laptop. The laptop computer is also available for elderly recipients to borrow on a short term basis.

So successful has the use of the laptop computer been that this project has put in a bid for funds to purchase another two during the next financial year.

Clearly this project is in it’s infancy, but the use of Millennium Volunteer Project funding will allow us to employ a project worker whose sole responsibility will be to administer to the inter-generation project.

 Paul Hulley
Sheffield Foyer

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